Flores Statement on November Jobs Report

Statement

U.S. Congressman Bill Flores (R-Texas) issued the following statement today regarding the November unemployment report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Today's unemployment report continues to provide more disappointing news to the 23 million Americans struggling to find employment. In November, we saw the unemployment rate remain weak at 7.7 percent, representing the continuing pain of the Obama economy with 46 months of unemployment near or above 8 percent. While most media outlets are reporting that 146,000 jobs were created in November, they are leaving out the fact that 350,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce; meaning that for each job that was created, two persons gave up looking for work. This means that the broader measures of economic pain are more fully reflected in the U6 unemployment rate, which includes total persons who are unemployed, underemployed or gave up looking for employment. The current U6 unemployment rate is significantly high at 14.4 percent and the labor participation rate has dropped to a new low of 63.6 percent.

"Americans are continuing to suffer from high unemployment under the failed policies of the Obama economic model. Now, the president wants to impose more hardship on the American middle class by failing to sit down with Congress and find common sense solutions to the nation's approaching fiscal cliff. The president and Congressional Democrats continue to advocate for tax increases on small business owners that would cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs. While our economy is struggling to recover, there is no need to increase the burden on small businesses which create the majority of jobs in America. The president should quit focusing on reallocating a shrinking economic pie by raising tax rates. Rather he should work with Congress to do two things -- first, to address spending which is the real fiscal problem in Washington, and second, to grow the economic pie for all Americans by enacting pro-growth tax reform. These solutions will help the American middle class by putting our nation on a path to fiscal stability, economic growth and job creation."